Shutterbugs

Featuring Mike Bush

I believe that I am a tactile learner – I need to involve the sense of touch to aid in my learning process. When I know that I will need to recall a lecture, I take notes. I may not ever refer to them – the simple act of putting pen to paper helps my recall. I remember when traveling being awed at the very worn marble steps in the Vatican and then the magic of walking them myself. My favorite memento from my mom's life is nothing fancy at all – simply her bag of wooden clothes pins worn smooth by her fingers over many years of hanging out our laundry. Every time I come across that soft-from-wear paper bag full of old clothes pins, I can almost smell her hair in a hug (she was lots shorter than I.)

Photography is a form of tactile learning for me as well. If I am carrying my camera, and have selected the proper lens and camera settings to be flexible within my surroundings, I am ready to both enjoy and absorb the moments ahead. And when I view the photos, they become clothes pins for my adventures.

Indian Paintbrush*

Safe Landing, Morro Strand State Beach*

California Poppies*

Mom and I got pretty good at processing our film and developing prints, so we repeated the class several times over the last two years I was in high school, simply for the fun and access to a darkroom.

Victoria 'Longwood Hybrid' Singapore

Victoria 'Longwood Hybrid', Singapore

To get ready for a trip to Europe after high school, my mom bought me a used Nikkormat FTn! NOW I was getting somewhere! A real SLR. Focus was never going to be a problem, nor would framing the photo, as I could see in the viewfinder exactly what I was going to get. I only had to set the ASA, pick a shutter speed, match the exposure needle with the aperture ring, adjust the focus and snap the photo! Much simpler than all that guessing with my Kalimar! And I could change lenses, leading to a lifelong obsession.

My good buddies that were going off to university told me that I was only going to "13th grade" by attending St. Petersburg Junior College. That bothered me till I discovered that SPJC had a weekly newspaper and a darkroom! On the nightmare day of my first registration – running around with classes closing and standing in multiple lines trying to get ANY schedule accepted – I ran into a guy with wild blond hair and a scruffy beard sitting quietly in a chair at the end of the registration tables, a stack of newspapers on his lap. When I asked him if he knew anything about the newspaper's darkroom, and was it available to students, he said, "You know how to use a darkroom?"

California Poppies at Leaning Pine Arboretum*

Full Moon with Pelican, Morro Bay

Devout Hindu, Thaipusam Festival, Singapore

Paul Hemenway sent me on a trial assignment and I wound up with a scholarship for tuition for the two years I was at SPJC in exchange for a job as Staff Photographer. I rolled my own film into easy-to-open (and easy to drop and pop open) canisters from bulk, shot the film, processed the film, and developed the photos – all on deadline. Paul was a couple of years older and, at 18, he seemed sooo much older and experienced in the important stuff – like autocross with his Saab, playing the guitar, going to parties and making a great paper. He's now the Communications Department Chair at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.

Beach Canyon, Morro Strand *

My first lens purchase was the micro Nikkor 55m f2.8 (macro) lens, as I was studying botany at the University of South Florida in Tampa and wanted to see (and learn!) more by taking closer and better photos of plants and flowers and flower parts. That lens had a very tiny final element set deeply into the housing of the lens and would put a 1:2 image on the film. With the included extender ring, it would make a 1:1 image! I later flirted for a while with a 100-300mm old Nikkor lens for some birding, yet that didn't 'wow' me at that time. I next bought one of the great lenses of all time (I was buying all used e

Greater Scaup, Morro Bay

quipment except for that first 55mm micro-Nikkor) – the Nikkor 105mm f1.8. Sharp, fast, brilliant… and it brought me even closer to butterflies and flowers I couldn't reach.

By the time I got out of college and began working in botanical gardens (I've worked in ten so far), I found that my camera was useful for educational programs, accessions, publications, and later, websites. I opened Myriad (Botanical) Gardens in Oklahoma City and gathered a super staff that included a topflight horticulturist and photographer, Jesse Rohde. He and I would push each other in our own, in-house photo contests to see who could get the best photos.

It was at that time that I became smitten with Kodachrome 200, a warm-color friendly slide film that was fast enough for lower light levels and would take some great Oklahoma sunsets. In fact, Jesse – wild man that he was (is?) – actually harmed his retina temporarily by staring through his camera too long for an even better sunset shot.

I found friends and helpful people at local photo-shows and camera-swap shows in and around Oklahoma City and Norman, OK, carrying a big padded (used of course!) camera bag over my shoulder, full of lenses and bodies to trade or sell. I worked my way up the Nikon line, acquiring an FE and later an FE2 – now with 1/4000 sec shutter and an aperture-priority automatic exposure setting, although I mostly still used the match-needle method.

For the next several years, through my work at gardens in Bermuda and then Charlotte, NC, I continued to be happy with my FE2, although I had become a 'lazy photographer.' With the modern zoom lenses (Nikkor 35-105mm and then a Nikkor 35-135mm), my FE2 could take good close-ups, wide angles and could reach to frame a particular view – all from standing in the same place. And boy, could I eat up some slide film with my FE2 with that walk-around zoom lens. I still have three large boxes full of slides, many annotated (and at least as many not) in storage from my pre-digital life…to be converted to digital format someday.

Curious Sheep, Cal Poly

I was enjoying my work with gardens and plants and had become skilled at quickly walking through a garden to document the good and the not-so-good aspects of the gardens where I worked. The walk-around zoom lenses were perfect for that very task. Yet I hadn't really matured as a photographer.

Nearly nine years ago my work led me to direct Lotusland, in Santa Barbara. I had just returned that summer from a trip to Europe, this time as a lecturer on the brand-new Queen Mary 2 cruise ship and with my wife, Jeanne Miller. I had gone digital that summer for the trip, acquiring a used Nikon D70 and a newer lens, now with vibration reduction and a real "super zoom" Nikkor 18-200mm. I had a grand time in the UK, again being able to document/enjoy gardens, macros, vistas, and interiors, all with this one lens – what an invention! And while my photos allowed me to absorb my adventures like "clothes pins," looking back I can see that, photographically, I felt I was in a groove but I was actually in a rut.

Color Slammed with Nemesia and Lobelia

While at Lotusland in Santa Barbara, I became interested in birds again. I had enjoyed birding after college, yet never really pursued that interest. My wife and I were living on the grounds at Lotusland, in Madame Walska's actual living area, The Pavilion – a guest house adjacent to the main building, and we loved to stroll the gardens before and after tour times each day. As a 30+ acre organically-maintained greenspace, Lotusland also attracted a lot of birds. In fact, a January bird-watching program led by Steve Timbrook (Lotusland's Director Emeritus) and Jeff Chemnick (international birder and cycad guru) triggered our new interest in birding.

A friend from my first garden job in Sarasota, FL contacted me five years ago, resulting in Jeanne and me relocating to Singapore for two years. Now I could take photos of really new birds! And great new plants, too. At 1° North Latitude, the Singaporean climate is tropical rainforest, although the country is a city-state as modern as Manhattan – only greener, cleaner and nearly crime-free. Sunlight was always twelve hours with fast twilights, funneling my plant/bird watching into weekend jaunts, outings that ended only when the humid tropical environment got the best of us. And I was consumed with work. Work was horticulture on a scale not seen since Versailles.

My work at Gardens by the Bay was punctuated by international plant acquisition trips to fill two cooled conservatories covering five acres and nearly 200' high. In a region where orchids grow on trees in parks, the rare, never-seen plants are geraniums, California poppies, magnolias, and others from cool and dry parts of the world. I had a wonderful melange of very tropical plants being sourced for the outdoor grounds plus a Mediterranean climate and cloud forest plants for the two conservatories. I was in a naturalist's paradise. And Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid 19th Century didn't have those cool-growing Mediterannean plants that I did!

Morro Rock Fog

I purchased (used, of course) a Sigma 150mm f2.8 Macro in Singapore for great close-ups of the new plants and insects and then invested in a used Sigma Ring Flash, as the tree canopies were always rather dark/shady for macro work. Traveling back to southern California for a plant-sourcing trip, my birder-buddy Adam Lewis sold me his Sigma 150-500mm zoom as an upgrade (faster focus plus image stabilization) to my Tamron 200-500. I had opened a Flickr photo-sharing account prior to moving to Singapore and began adding to it regularly. There are hundreds of photos loaded that depict bird and plant life in Singapore, as well as a healthy dose of life around Singapore and its multi-ethnic holidays.

By then I had settled into a very useful and efficient means of walk-around photography. I had not used my "lazy lens" (a Nikon 18-200mm) in some time as I was very keen on being able to reach out to capture better photos of birds. Yet when hooked up with my "bird lens" I would often be smitten by a reptile in an orchid or need to document conservatory construction or discover a cannoball flower in perfect light to shoot. My solution was to never be without a camera. Never. I purchased (used, on eBay) a point-and-shoot camera, (first a Canon, then a couple of Fujis, and now a series of Lumixs) that fit in a belt case that I strap on my belt when I dress each morning, setting it aside only at the time of showering at night. After all my "fancy" cameras, this series of point-and-shoot cameras were very often the best camera to use – especially if my Nikon D90 was at home or on my desk at work! (Images marked with an * were taken with a point-and-shoot camera.)

This solution serves me well today. Jeanne and I returned to the Central Coast, as I came to work as director of the SLO Botanical Garden from Singapore. I still carry a point-n-shoot on my belt, so that when I go birding, I can hook up my "bird lens" and still be able to take shots of vistas, or flower macros or document photos for work. And I try my Samsung Galaxy 3's camera from time to time; it's useful, but cannot match the image quality or flexibility of my point-n-shoot.

Essence of the Tropics - Heliconia, Singapore

Cal Poppies have Fingers!*

A little over a year ago, the SLO Botanical Garden board informed me that it could no longer continue to afford the services of an executive director. For a while I had more time on my hands for photos (!) and while locating new employment I was supported by my photo and bird friends in the community.

I am grateful to Marlin Harms, Tom Edell, Maggie Smith, Bill Bouton and others who have guided me to good nature spots and have been willing to visit me and my wife in our new 'affordable housing' as campground hosts in Morro Bay State Park and Morro Strand State Beach. We are closer to nature and weather, feeling rather connected to the Central Coast in a way that we weren't previously.

Lecturing part-time at Cal Poly in the Horticulture and Crop Science department has also been an opportunity to be around plants – and yes, birds, too! The Leaning Pine Arboretum on campus is a great place to see imaginative groupings of sustainably grown plants that also attract photogenic birds. I am also responsible for growing the orchids at Cal Poly and teaching selected students in Orchid Production, I remain glad to have my camera strapped to my hip every day.

Color with Hooded Oriole and Jerusalem Sage, SLO Botanical Garden

Poppy Portrait

I Got Mine! Lizard and Orchid, Singapore

I still use my Sigma 150mm macro when I know I will be taking a lot of macro photos, and have used it extensively at local orchid shows in combination with my Sigma Ring Flash. I can take high-quality, dependable photos and move efficiently to another plant. In fact, my new venture,  "Orchid Custom Care," is building a library of orchid images to use with new clients who are seeking different orchids to purchase as I help them maintain their current collections. That setup worked great this spring at the Santa Barbara Orchid Show and the Five Cities Orchid Show. And over Memorial Day weekend, I took the Sigma and Sigma setup to the local Cactus & Succulent Show with great success, although my point-n-shoot was at the ready and used for vistas along Turri Road on the way home.

Flowers can Fly! Capparis in Singapore

I enjoy connecting people to nature – nearly all aspects of nature. Marlin Harms, Jerry Kirkhart, and Spencer Riffle even got me into a tide pool a few months back. I was able to take good photos of tide pool subjects with my Nikon 70-300mm "tweener lens" and still get beach vistas from North Point with my point-n-shoot camera. On my next tide pool adventure, however, I'm hooking up the Sigma 150mm macro and the ring flash!

I love to share my images, and my photos help get points across when I run out of words. And by taking photos, I remember my adventures better, thanks to the focus the photography demands. And photography allows me to have the joy of my images any time I wish – with my self-made "clothes pins."

My Recommendations

1. Carry a camera ALL the time. It's amazing how frequently I use my point-n-shoot camera that I carry on my belt. I suppose that a phone/camera would work for many, however.

2. Take a LOT of photos! I'm a walk-about photographer and rarely encumber myself with a tripod, so some of my bird images are not as sharp as they could be. Over the past couple of days, I took 200+ photos of owls here in the State Parks. And I've kept ten that I like. After all, we have the ability to see our results instantly on the camera, and enlarged as soon as we download on a computer. We are not buying film or processing; we are only "renting pixels" to be reused tomorrow. So take a LOT of images!

3. Be on the lookout for photo-friends — here on the Central Coast or online. And don't be afraid to admire, ask questions, and take photo-walks with those that are better than you. My high school coach said I would never get better at tennis if I never played anyone better than I. Learn from those more advanced. Hence my friends in photos, like Marlin Harms, Bill Bouton, and Don Quintana!

What's next for me? In the equipment department, I'd like to upgrade in a Nikon camera with a 24 mega-pixel sensor, so's I can put more "pixels on the bird"; and I like the looks of the new Tamron 150-600mm zoom. While prime glass is not in my budget (even used!), this lens might be at $1,100 or so and give me an extra 100mm of reach.

I'm very flattered to be asked to contribute for the June SLO Coast Journal Shutterbugs, and follow some amazing photographers. I've learned a lot from you – and will continue to seek your advice!

Morro Strand Sunset *

See more of Mike's work on Flickr                    You can also contact Mike via Email

Previous Shutterbugs include David Holmes, Fred Moore, Mimi Ditchie, Alice Cahill, Gary Powell, Ken Bondy, Sylvia Sanchez, Donald Quintana, Beth Sargent, Don Henderson, Jerry Kirkhart, Steve Corey, Linda McDonald, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Ronnie Goyette, Dorothy Cutter, Aiden Briggs, Devra Cooper, Ashala Tylor, Marlin Harms, Howard Ignatius, Elizabeth Haslam, Mike Baird, Linda Tanner, Fred Moore, Cheryl Strahl, Greg Smith, Bill Bouton, and Bob Canepa.